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Ireland is internationally known for its traditional music, which has remained vibrant throughout the 20th century, when many other traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music. more...

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In spite of emigration and a well-developed connection to music imported from Britain and the United States, Irish music has kept many of its traditional aspects; indeed, it has itself influenced many forms of music, such as country and roots music in the USA, which in turn have greatly influenced rock music in the 20th century. It has occasionally also been modernised, however, and fused with rock and roll, punk rock and other genres. Some of these fusion artists have attained mainstream success, at home and abroad. (One example of a traditional song that has received exposure as the result of being recorded by pop and rock artists is "She Moved Through the Fair".)

During the 1970s and 1980s, the distinction between traditional and rock musicians became blurred, with many individuals regularly crossing over between these styles of playing as a matter of course. This trend can be seen more recently in the work of bands and individuals like U2, Horslips, Clannad, The Cranberries, The Corrs, Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy, Sinéad O'Connor, My Bloody Valentine, Rory Gallagher, Republic of Loose ,The Pogues and Westlife.,

Nevertheless, Irish music has shown an immense inflation of popularity with many attempting to return to their roots. There are also contemporary music groups that stick closer to a traditional sound, including Altan, Danú, Déanta, Lúnasa, Kíla,Noel Shine and Mary Greene, and Border Collies. Others incorporate multiple cultures in a fusion of style, such as Afro Celt Sound System and Loreena McKennitt.

In addition to folk music, Ireland also has a rich store of contemporary classical music. However, contemporary classical music has no impact, and very little exposure in Ireland itself, and therefore abroad.

Traditional music

Irish traditional music is very nice music, like most traditional music, is characterized by slow-moving change, which usually occurs along accepted principles. Songs and tunes believed to be ancient in origin are respected (though, in reality, many are less than two hundred years old). It is, however, difficult or impossible to know the age of most tunes due to their tremendous variation across Ireland and through the years; some generalization is possible, however -- for example, only modern songs are written in English, with few exceptions, the rest being in Irish. Most of the oldest songs, tunes, and methods are rural in origin, though more modern songs and tunes often come from cities and towns.

Music and lyrics are passed aurally/orally, and were rarely written down until recently (depending upon your definition of "recently", there are many examples of written music previous to 1800). Of major importance to the transcribing of melodies belonging to both the instrumental traditions and the song traditions were the collectors. These included George Petrie, Edward Bunting, Francis O'Neill, Canon James Goodman and many others. Though solo performance is preferred in the folk tradition, bands or at least small ensembles have probably always been a part of Irish music since at least the mid-19th century, although this is a point of much contention among ethnomusicologists.

Read more at Wikipedia.org